First Edition

Jesse Rutherford and Jessie English Push Past Gender in Book of Iconic Images

New York, NY-- March 9, 2016 -- Remedial Media announces the release of &, a 144 page hardcover collection of black and white images featuring Jesse Rutherford of The Neighborhood, as shot by acclaimed Australian photographer Jessie English.

It began in Autumn 2014, when Jesse and Jessie met up in New York to shoot what was meant to be a single portrait. Rutherford brought with him a few items of clothing, which he’d selected somewhat sporadically from the floor of his hotel room. In the space of three hours they moved from torn t-shirt to Chanel beauty with impeccable ease and imagination. By the end of the afternoon, they’d shot eight distinct looks, and 500 images.

The idea for the book was born at the end of that day, fueled by the freshness and fluidity of those early images. The two quickly established certain rules of engagement: Jesse would style himself from his own wardrobe. They would shoot until he ran out of clothes. They would expand on their initial ideas of gender fluidity, self expression, rock iconography, echoing the likes of Bowie, Iggy, Kurt, Ozzy... The images would be presented in the book in the order they were shot. They would neither retouch, nor even exclude a single frame. There would be no words and no explanations, only a symbol.

“The thing that I have always loved about photography is the space it allows for performance. Jesse was a hundred different people over the course of our shoots; he tried on all kinds of personalities for size, every one of them a part of himself.” -- JESSIE ENGLISH

JESSE RUTHERFORD: “In these images, I am both Nancy and Sid. I am the symbol in between. I’m not exploring any one side. I’m just doing what my tastebuds want to do. I’m exploring how things fit on the shape of the body I was given.”